Florence O'Neill   

                                     B.A. (Dalhousie) 1935

                                     Ed.D. (Columbia University) 1944

Born: Witless Bay, NF., January, 1905

Died: Ottawa , Ontario, April, 1990

Nicknames:  FON, and Florrie

Biographical Note:

Florence O'Neill came from the small fishing community of Witless Bay Newfoundland.  It is situated 40 kilometres south of St. John's, the capital city.  She was not a robust and healthy child and as a result she spent a great deal of her childhood reading rather than playing outdoors.  As she grew into a young woman, Florence became interested in seeing the world beyond her village and chose to have a career rather than to marry and settle in Witless Bay or some other small fishing village.  Her career choice was teaching.  She taught for 2 years on Oderin Island in St. Mary's Bay and then she decided to take a break from teaching and go to college. She attended Memorial University College in St. John's in 1925.  After a year of school, she returned to teaching.  This became a pattern for the next several years.  She attended Memorial University College and then Dalhousie University by taking courses for one year at a time, interspersing those years with teaching in order to be able to afford the year she took as a student.  She continued to take years off teaching after earning her Bachelor's Degree.  She enrolled at Columbia University and completed a doctoral program there in Adult Education in 1944.  She was the first Canadian to earn a doctoral degree in Adult Education.

Florence O'Neill became the Director of Adult Education in Newfoundland in 1946.  She continued in that role until 1958.  She began working in adult education as an itinerant teacher in 1936.  At that time teachers were placed in communities for 3 months at a time to try to help the community identify needs and plan for their own development and needs.  O'Neill continued in the field after 1958 when she went to Ottawa to direct the organization of adult education program in the Department of Indian Affairs.  She continued in that position until her retirement in 1969.
 

Selected Publications:

Written by Florence O'Neill
"Thou Beside Me in the Wilderness" in Citizen Participation: Canada.  James A. Draper, Ed. Toronto: New Press, 1971.  pp. 215-225.

Written about Florence O'Neill
McManus, Katherine (2000).  Florence O'Neill: A Newfoundland Adult Educator-- Alone in the Wilderness. Dissertation.
 

Prepared May 3, 2004 - Katherine McManus

Site Sponsored by the University College of the Fraser Valley

Contact Editors